LOST: Don’t Tell Me What I Can’t Do

If you’ve been caught up in the TV show LOST, you’ll come to recognize this as a recurring catch phrase offered by various members of the cast. I recently had the pleasure of plowing through all six seasons of this head scratching, brilliant show and wanted to share my thoughts on it. I will attempt to keep the spoilers to a minimum for those of you who haven’t seen LOST and intend to in the future. For those of you who have seen it and want to discuss it in detail, feel free to private message me.

The basic premise is that a plane crashes on an island and the survivors wait for a rescue. Simple right? Turns out, no. Seasons one and two are probably my favorite of the six, mainly due to how well J J Abrams manages to keep the show simple while teasing that next secret or threat that will haunt the survivors in future episodes. Flashbacks are a common theme, revealing more and more about each person’s past and how they may have interacted with each other prior to them getting on the plane that sent them into an adventure that they will never forget.

John Locke…Don’t tell him what he can’t do.

The acting was well done in my opinion and character development was such that I cared about each person’s individual role and how they would deal with the next crisis. Characters often reached hi’s and low’s in the eyes of their fellow castaways, being respected one minute and then hated the next. Humor makes a regular appearance, helping to keep things from getting too serious.

As I mentioned earlier, the first two seasons were my favorite. As more and more is revealed about the island, things end up getting more and more confusing. The ending does clear some of it up, but I don’t feel it was explained well enough for the average viewer. I was forced to Google it and read up on articles written by the writers and producers of the show to figure out what exactly happened and why.

SPOILER: They didn’t end up here.

I do and don’t like the way the later seasons played out and ultimately ended. I felt as if towards the later seasons, new secrets and plot twists were practically thrown at me so quickly that I didn’t have enough time or explanation to process the new development. I would have happily paid for an extra season for them to slow things down a little and allow the viewer time to assimilate the story.

I personally enjoyed the show and would give it four out of five stars. The constant “science versus faith” battle portrayed throughout was a nice touch and constantly made me think about why things happened the way they did every time something happened to one of the cast. When a show makes me think about it outside of watching it, it means that it successfully drew me in. If you are the type of person that enjoys speculation and figuring things out, this show will satisfy your craving.